AVR Studio 4 is tried and true. My preferred method is to use a completely different editor (e.g. Notepad++ on Windows), and then just use AVR Studio 4 for compiling.

Why wouldn't you just use avr-gcc and avr-libc (and make and avrdude) at that point?

Because I don't care for reading the error messages in a terminal as much. Nor do I care for setting up more stuff when my build process is already: alt+tab, F7 (F5? been a while), read errors, alt+tab, continue coding.

Additionally, I imagine Webbotlib sets up my makefile for me, in this case... haven't checked. In the past, I've always found trying to modify the webbotlib workflow to not be worth my time (But I can totally manage dealing with Makefiles if need be... but they're not a joy to work with)

For info: running a Generate in Project Designer will re-create the makefile including any c or cpp files it finds in the home directory of the project. If you are using other libraries then you can also identify them during the Generate stage. Obviously you only need to do this once or if you add/remove and source files of your own. Then you can use 'make' to build.

If you don't like console output then WebbotLib Studio shows errors in a separate window which you can click on and scroll to the offending line (amongst other features).

Because I don't care for reading the error messages in a terminal as much. Nor do I care for setting up more stuff when my build process is already: alt+tab, F7 (F5? been a while), read errors, alt+tab, continue coding.

Not a fan of vim or emacs, then? :-)Both of them let you build (and get errors in your window, with jump-to functionality).Make: Just use a makefile that builds everything in the current directory. Set it and forget it.

You probably have a good set-up that works for you, so the following observation is for the benefit of the world at large:It's been my experience that the benefit of using the traditional tool chain is that it's available everywhere, and works the same everywhere, and you know and can diagnose any kind of happening.IDEs are rather more hit-or-miss on that, and the "helping" they do is, half of the time, not actually what you'd have wanted had you done it yourself.